What happened
The four-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran faltered yesterday as President Donald Trump’s attempts to reopen traffic through the Strait of Hormuz prompted Iranian attacks on U.S. warships and commercial ships. The United Arab Emirates and Oman also reported the first strikes on their territories since the ceasefire began, and the UAE blamed Iran. U.S. Central Command said that two U.S.-flagged merchant ships passed through the strait and that U.S. military helicopters sank six Iranian military speedboats; Iran said none of its boats were destroyed. 

Who said what
Tehran “did not outright confirm or deny” its attacks, The Associated Press said, and CENTCOM said it had shot down all Iranian missiles and drones fired at U.S. Navy ships and the commercial vessels they were guiding through a passage it had “successfully opened” through the strait. Trump appeared “willing to look past” Iran’s attacks,” The Wall Street Journal said. But yesterday’s violence put his “desire to end the Iran war” to the test. 

What next?
Shipping companies said yesterday that Trump’s “offer to provide them safe passage” through the strait “fell short of the sort of arrangements that would persuade them to make the trip,” The New York Times said. 

What happened
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is in critical condition in a Florida hospital as he recovers from pneumonia, but he “is now breathing on his own” after requiring a ventilator, spokesperson Ted Goodman said yesterday. Giuliani, 81, is the “ultimate fighter” and “he is winning this battle.” 

Who said what
Giuliani, once hailed as “America’s Mayor” for his response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City, has “struggled with legal and financial problems in recent years,” The New York Times said. Last year he “suffered a fractured vertebra” from a car crash in New Hampshire, and he “made at least one public appearance in a wheelchair.” On his podcast Friday, Giuliani said his voice was “a little under the weather.” Goodman yesterday said Giuliani had been diagnosed with restrictive airway disease stemming from his proximity to Ground Zero on 9/11, and “this condition adds complications to any respiratory illness.”

What next?
Giuliani’s health had “concerned those around him” recently, People said, citing a source close to the Trump administration. He “isn’t in good shape,” the source said.

Poor architecture can be a public health crisis. And in Tanzania, moving families into specially designed Star Homes has resulted in a marked reduction in the spread of deadly diseases among the children living in them. 

Most houses in Tanzanian villages are made of “mud and thatch” and are “single-story, placing the sleeping spaces at-grade,” said The Architect’s Newspaper. These living arrangements likely contribute to the spread of malaria, diarrhea and acute respiratory infections (ARIs), which are the “major causes of mortality in young children in sub-Saharan Africa,” said a study published in the journal Nature Medicine. 

Designed by researchers, Star Homes are “novel double-story” houses that “provide an insect-proof, cleaner, cooler and smoke-free environment, with a reliable supply of water and sanitation,” said the study. They can also be built with fewer resources than traditional mud brick houses while producing fewer carbon emissions.

To test the new housing, scientists randomly placed households with children under age 13 in either 110 Star Homes or 513 traditional mud and thatched-roofed houses. After 36 months, children in Star Homes had a “significantly reduced risk of malaria (44% reduction), diarrhea (27%) and ARIs (18%) compared to children living in traditional mud and thatched-roof homes,” said the study. 

The findings show that architecture can “function as a health intervention on a par with medicine when it’s developed and documented using scientific methods,” said Jakob Knudsen, the lead architect of the Star Homes, to The Architect’s Newspaper.